Legal ghouls at Sony Pictures were allegedly mulling "aggressive" moves against Bill Murray for dragging his feet on a planned "Ghostbusters" reboot, new messages show.
David Steinberg, the Sony studio's chief legal eagle, emailed Leah Weil, its general counsel, in October 2013 in order to identify an "aggressive litigation counsel" to use legal means again Murray, The Daily Beast reported.
"In order to more fully evaluate our position if Bill Murray again declines to engage on 'Ghostbusters', AG requested that we identify 'aggressive' litigation counsel with whom we can consult to evaluate our alternatives and strategize," the email said, according to news site.
But the Sony brass was apparently wary of crossing streams with the media, knowing they'd look uglier than Gozer the Gozerian if word got out they were going after the beloved actor.
"Personally, while I'm fine with aggressive, I think we are in much worse shape if this goes public so seems to me we should look for someone who isn't seeking the spotlight," the email said.
Meanwhile, another message showed more wheeling-and-dealing over the rumored third "Ghostbusters" film, which was said to feature an all-female cast.
On Oct. 8, embattled Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal emailed Ivan Reitman, who directed the first one, to say that several A-list actresses were interested in donning the crew's signature jumpsuits.
"….I'm hearing jennifer lawrence and Emma stone and Melissa McCarthy and Amy schumer and (Lizzy) Kaplan just to name a few have already said (they) wanted to be in...." Pascal wrote, according to The Daily Beast.
Elsewhere, Pascal seemed to suggest the film's producers had big shoes to fill, as fans of the original would be wary of a new version falling flat.
"Agree that everyone is way too nervous about how this issue and how we. present it but it's isn't a sequel to the 80s movies and it is gonna be totally original with completely different characters and our job is to find a clever way to connect the movie to the original franchise…" the message said.
The latest leaks came on the same day Pascal finally broke her silence on the scandal, saying she was "deeply embarrassed."
I know I screwed up," she said in an interview with Deadline. "We are going to try to use this as an opportunity to make things better."
In particularly ugly exchange, Pascal and producer Scott Rudin traded racially-tinged emails about President Obama and his imagined movie tastes.
The Rev. Al Sharpton said Pascal's apology didn't go far enough.
"The culture of Hollywood makes it acceptable for people to speak like this," said Sharpton. "If she's really sorry, she can deal with her company's content and policy."